Tonight I have mostly been

...reading up greek legends. No, that doesn't sound pausable somehow.

Ok then, I spent the evening drinking coco and watching Corrie on the box. No, don't belive me...

Right, I may have to own up then. Tonight I spent lying on my back underneath Bitsa, doing a simple job. Changing one engine mount.

If I was in the workshop I'd have just parked under the block and tackle, wipped the nose of the engine up, swapped the mounts and stuck a new one in. However tonight I changed one in the boatyard carpark with a 15mm spanner and a crowbar. Basically, the sport consisted of levering the engine about with the crowbar while reaching into the vicinity of the mount and trying to do the chinese puzzle which is tickling the engine mounts into place. This is not a sport for the sqeamish, but hopefully the fingers I trapped will have recovered sufficently by sunday for my to still manage to play the organ at Church. (Yes, I am an occasional church organist, even if that sounds less pausable than the claim that I watch Corrie(I don't))
Now, I thought with diesel engine mounts, here was somthing that even Britpart couldn't mess up. How wrong I was. Just guess what eats Britpart diesel engine mount rubbers, and turns them into a sticky jelly. Not washing up liquid. Not nitric acid, or at least, it may do, but I've not tried. Not rain, even acid rain. No, somthing more common on a diesel engine than any of the above... yep, you've guessed it - diesel. You would think it would be possible to make a rubber compound that can withstand diesel... fuel filters seem to have some sort of rubber seals that don't fail.

Talking of fuel filters, and leaked diesel, I think I've finally sorted the largest single cause of Bitsa's leaks - the fuel filter housing. Having traced the path of some of the significant quanties of oil that were running down the engine and onto the floor, it appeared that there was a small, but stead drip comming from the tank bleed back union on the filter. This had had the thread partially striped and that was probably the start of most of my problems. Anyway, I've now fitted a new fuel filter housing, that I found hiding in the back of the workshop the otherday, and she only seems to have the usual oil leaks now.

I also have a top tip for those changing fuel filters, particularly if they have iffy fuel lift pumps. Get a decent sized syringe, and you can fill the new filter in a few moments, with no mess. Incidentally, a syringe is a very handy addition to any toolkit for lots of jobs like this - apparently they are very good for filling steering relays(there is a saga here, involving a knackered relay that doesn't wish to depart Bitsa's front crossmember, but don't even ask just at the moment, I'll publish the full story as and when I've managed to get it out), and also for testing dizzy vac advances.

While I was fooling underneath the old shed, I figured it was about time I did somthing about the fact that one of the major mounting points for the exahust was the top of the rear axle. Those with memories of the 07 Series 2 Club Northern Gathering may recall that my truck caught fire about 4 times in the course of that weekend. The root cause was a faulty wiper switch which was occasionally earthing its live feed throught to the dash pannel face. The resuling current and consiquent heat burnt the insulation off the main pannel feed, which I wrapped in insulation tape as a "get me home, and the be ignored for the next year or so" sort of bodge. Anyway, in the recent rebuild, this delightful bodge was finally replaced, and the big bit of burnt looking heavy duty wire ended up with 1001 other bits of junk floating about in the toolbox. Not being a man to waste anything, this has now been recycled into a handy exahust mount, that holds the rear pipe a good 3" clear of the back axle. At some point I will replace this bodge with a propper rubber mount, but probably only in about 2020, or when the big of burnt looking wire breaks, whichever happens first.

I'm now nearly ready for EOD, which is a good job, as its only four days away now. The engine mount change I had deemed essential before I taking her laning/ragging her round Hartington quarry(one of the rubbers had been in the habbit of jumping out if I was just a tad agressive over speedbumps, never mind went laning), and I was getting sick of the fuel bill the leaking filter was responsable for. The main jobs I need to do now are put the transmition tunnel back in(not quite simple, as I need to scrounge a hole saw to make it fit over the overdrive lever), fit the truckcab propperly, adjust the handbrake so its not right on the limit of travel, and clear at least some of the junk out of the back...